Lone Star Shootout - Everything's Bigger... - NMRA Texas

The NMRA Season Came To A Close With A Big Bang In Texas.

Marc ChristAssociate Editor

April 4, 2011

Michigan, New Jersey, and Florida are known hot spots for muscle Mustangs, and for years, we've brought you race coverage from these Mustang honey holes. What you may not know, though, is that the great state of Texas is littered with Mustangs, performance shops, and local dragstrips. And it wasn't until recently that Texans had a place to call their own on the NMRA circuit.

In 2009, the NMRA and NMCA staff, along with the help of Houston Raceway Park, pulled together the first-ever Lone Star Shootout after the season was already underway. It was a great success, and plans were made to continue the non-points season closer. Like the Super Bowl in Joliet, Illinois, the Lone Star Shootout is a double event, bringing the best of NMRA and NMCA together for one big bash.

Saturday's car show brought out some of the best iron Detroit has produced, dominated by Mustangs and other fast Fords alike. The manufacturer's midway was packed with vendors providing a sneak peak at new products for 2011. There was also the usual swap meet, where one man's junk ... well, you know.

Special classes were formed to pit the best of NMCA and NMRA together in competition. Super Trucks & SUV was open to all years and makes of trucks and SUVs, and Late-Model EFI hosted all domestic late-model hot rods; NMRA Modular Muscle and Open Comp were combined to form Triangle Speed Shop Mod-Comp; and NMRA Hot Street joined NMCA Pro Stock to form Harland Sharp All Motor. Some familiar classes like Tremec True Street and JDM Engineering Super Stang were contested, adding to the fun.

True Street turnout was great, as always. Forty-two vehicles entered the competition, of which only four lacked a Blue Oval. Twenty-eight finished the 30-mile cruise and three back-to-back quarter-mile passes, led by winner Angel Padilla in Joel Cura's twin-turbo-powered '93 LX coupe. The 8.050-second average was impressive but just shy of the elusive 7-second barrier.

As its title suggests, though, the focus of the event was on the Lone Star Shootout. Like the Spring Break Shootout, the top 16 in Saturday's True Street competition were invited back to compete in a heads-up eliminator. Round by round, cars were eliminated until only one was left standing to be awarded with a 6-foot trophy, a $500 prize, and bragging rights as the ultimate street/strip car in the great state of Texas.

With the success of the Lone Star Shootout over the last two years, the NMRA and NMCA have reserved HMP this November to do it all over again. So if you live in the Houston area or want to take a road trip, meet us in Houston for the Lone Star Shootout November 11-13, 2011.